1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices and methods of immobilizing patients for radiation therapy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Whole breast radiotherapy is a treatment that may follow local excision (lumpectomy) of invasive breast cancer. One rationale for adjuvant radiotherapy is to reduce the recurrence rate of the breast cancer by eliminating residual foci of cancer in the region of the primary tumor as well as presumed occult multicentric disease in remote areas of the breast. However, the majority of cancer recurrences in the same breast after breast radiation therapy are in the same quadrant as the initial tumor. In fact, some 80-90% of breast cancer recurrences after breast radiation therapy occur in the immediate vicinity of the lumpectomy scar. Accordingly, treatment directed more specifically at the region of the breast involved with cancer may be equally efficacious in minimizing breast recurrence.